Ringraziamo l'Associazione Luca Coscioni che sostiene l’iniziativa.
Pubblichiamo a seguire il testo della lettera anche in inglese per permetterne la massima diffusione.
Ringraziamo tutti i sostenitori che hanno rapidamente fatto crescere il numero delle sottoscrizioni, invitandoli a condividere la lettera. Pur non avendo ancora una risposta da parte della presidente del CNR, rimaniamo fiduciosi sulla sua sensibilità all’iniziativa.
Open Letter by research scientists
to the President of the CNR, Professor Maria Chiara Carrozza
August 23, 2021
Dear President,
We are passively watching the outbreak of the new scenario in Afghanistan, which is a life threat to scientists and students, particularly women. Women in science, culture, and research, who in the last twenty years have enjoyed the fundamental right to knowledge and study, guaranteed by international conventions and the UN, will no longer be allowed to continue their research and studies, erasing everything that they had achieved thus far (see UN link).
Women students and scientists who had roles in Universities and other cultural institutions, and have contributed to the advancement of society, are being forced to hide or flee the country in order to avoid kidnapping, segregation, rape and death in a regime that does not contemplate the existence of women as subjects of law outside of the sharia law. Among the earliest announcements of the new government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid (cf. Washington Post) is the prohibition for women to attend public universities. Segregation in their homes is being imposed upon them until new order, the defiance of which would be a life threat.
The international scientific community is seeking to respond to this emergency (see for example the “Backpack” initiative at the University of California-Davis).
The Italian National Research Council (CNR), as the largest scientific institution in the country, has a central role in supporting, advancing and developing the scientific community, as well as establishing international cooperation in all disciplines and research fields.
We therefore ask you to activate all necessary actions with our Government:
1. to activate all diplomatic actions against the barbarian policies we are witnessing;
2. to implement humanitarian corridors from Afghan universities and research centers towards our country to grant hospitality for students and researchers, particularly females, who wish to complete their research and studies in our institution;
3. to reallocate immediately part of the funds that were previously devoted to military operations in Afghanistan for this purpose.
Due to its multidisciplinary nature, the CNR is the only national research organization that can integrate scientists and scholars in all disciplines, both directly and through its numerous collaborations with other National and International research centers and Universities.
We also propose to promote international scientific projects, which the CNR might lead based on its multidisciplinary integration and long-standing tradition in cultural heritage studies. The CNR has been a major player in the reconstruction of the virtual museum in Baghdad
after the war in Iraq and could now promote projects of historical, cultural and social interest for Afghanistan, particularly in women studies.
Afghan women, female researchers and students, have little – if any - escape. We can represent a safe destination and we feel a moral duty to act and offer our support to our colleagues in their freedom of study and research, a fundamental human dignity right.
Certain of your concern over this tragic situation, we confidently look forward to your response
Elvira de Leonibus, CNR Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (IBBC), Monterotondo
Patrizia Lavia, CNR Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology (IBPM), Rome
Vito Mocella, CNR Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), Naples
367 signatures follow
Update, August 27, 2021
This open letter was preliminarily sent to the CNR President Prof. Maria Chiara Carrozza on August 20 with 140 signatories;
a revision with 370 signatories was sent again on August 23.
The letter was covered by the largest Italian press agency, ANSA ;
it was commented upon in Scienza in Rete, one of the most read national scientific magazines, and has currently been endorsed by the Associazione Luca Coscioni, the largest Italian non-profit organization supporting civil liberties and the freedom of scientific research.
The letter to Prof. Carrozza can be read and signed online at http://chng.it/wMrzrFPPXX.
As per August 27 6:00 PM, it is being supported by over 5800 signatories
Time is dramatically running out. We are extremely relieved to know that the team of teenager female students in robotics, who had come to be world-renowned and winner of many international awards for their design of a new ventilator to treat Covid19, have fled the country and are now safe (cf Reuters).
However, more limitations and restrictions on traveling, and even reaching the airport in Kabul are being imposed.
The August 31 deadline is approaching and we cannot but recall the urgency to act now.